Congress Passes Clean Debt Ceiling Bill

The battle to pass a debt ceiling suspension bill is finally over. Earlier this week, lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed a suspension of the debt ceiling until March 15, 2015. Yesterday, after a dramatic vote to end debate on the bill, Senate leaders voted 55-43 to pass the House version.

Conversations have been brewing on this issue since last October, when Congress reached a deal to end the government shutdown as well as suspend the debt ceiling into February 2014.

And, after much speculation that the bill would be attached to cost-savings measures, the Keystone XL pipeline, or the repeal of a COLA adjustment made to military pensions, the bill provided for a “clean” debt ceiling suspension with no strings attached.

The vote comes more than two weeks ahead of the Feb. 27 deadline established by the Treasury as the very last day the US could pay its bills without the risk of defaulting on its loan payments – or reneging on a number of other obligations.

The bill will now be sent to President Obama, who has publicly backed the bill and is expected to sign it into law.